Originally published at: Scientists report groundbreaking first conversation between humans and whales | Boing Boing
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We’re not going to like what they have to say
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Probably something like “stop killing us, you assholes!”
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“Oh, wow, you guys have finally caught on! It’s about time. Now about those drilling platforms and whaling ships…”
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We’ll come to find that the whale name for us translates to “Death who swims above the water.”
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Jinx!
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In response to a recorded humpback ‘contact’ call played into the sea via an underwater speaker, a humpback whale named Twain approached and circled the team’s boat, while responding in a conversational style to the whale ‘greeting signal.’ During the 20-minute exchange, Twain responded to each playback call and matched the interval variations between each signal.
TL;DR version of conversation as follows
Humans: ‘Sup?
Whale: ‘Sup?
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So . . . If I’m reading this right, humans played a pre-recorded 'greeting," but we still have no idea what we’re saying, or what the replies mean. For all we know, we’re just playing a “Your Mom” joke and Twain here wants us to go in the water so he can have a word.
It’s progress, of course, but is it really a conversation when one side doesn’t know what they’re saying to the other, or what their reply is?
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Came here for this.
He’s half human, so it counts. 
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Yeah, this is one of those overstated press releases that doesn’t help the scientific community. (“We exaggerate!”)
What’s frustrating is that the actual story really is interesting. Tell that story, for goodness’ sake!
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Humans: 'Sup?
Whale: Whale hello there!
It turns out that whales loooove puns.
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came here for this. I was also thinking a Star Wars one would work as well (“It’s an older code, sir, but it checks out.”)
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“Deeeee… Teeeeee… Effffffff?”
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Scientists report groundbreaking first conversation between humans and whales
I misread that last word as “Whalers” 
When the translation finally comes through, it will turn out that whales are repeating the names of missing whales; keeping their memory alive along the thermocline. GNU.
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